Zodiacal Systems - Introduction
The issue of Zodiacal systems is an interesting subject. It is a bit complex, and it can be confusing. It is also contentious, with advocates of each style often maintaining that 'their system' is 'the right system'. This can at times produce arguments and infighting, but it is my experience that all the zodiacal systems have uses and reveal different information about the individual or entity that the reading is about.
The three main zodiacal systems are Tropical, Sidereal and True Constellational Sidereal. All astrology likely began as True Constellational Sidereal astrology, because it all had to have began as people simply looking up into the night sky, noticing the "moving stars" (planets) and the groups of stars (constellations) they moved through on their journey across the band of the sky (the ecliptic).
By the time humans started to keep written records in Sumer about 5,000 years ago, and through the Babylonian period, they were still making observations based on the actual planets in the heavens, but they had begun to devise a static zodiac of twelve 'signs', each of thirty degrees. That system matched the constellations in the heavens in terms of when the sun was in that sign. The phenomena called 'precession' causes the constellations to appear to gradually move backwards very slowly over the course of centuries, with a movement of 72 years per degree. Because of this, the constellational signs do not stay static. The complete precessional cycle takes about 26,000 years to go through a full circuit. So over time, any given seasonal marker, based upon the earth's movement around the sun, will have any of the constellational signs as its backdrop. For example, at the time of the Babylonians, the spring equinox in the Northern Hemisphere had Aries as the background constellation. Because of precession, that is no longer the constellational sign that the equinox occurs in, and now, thousands of years later, the spring equinox occurs in the beginning of the constellation of Pisces, and in a few more centuries, will enter Aquarius. Thus we say that we are in "the Age of Pisces" and are moving into "the Age of Aquarius", though we have a little ways to go yet to get in that age. It will be back to Aries in about 22,000 years.
By the time of the Greeks, the precessional Age of Aries was waning and Pisces was beginning, and by the Roman period the Equinoctial age was Pisces, yet the astrologers of that time continued to use the old configuration, not updating for precession. This appears to have been a conscious decision, probably based on deference to the seasonal cycle and the association of specific signs with specific seasons, rather than the actual visible constellations. The zodiac that they used, which was set with twelve signs of thirty degrees, beginning with Aries as the first sign starting on the first day of spring became known as the 'Tropical Zodiac' and is the one still used by Western Astrology systems. In India, the astrological system was continually updated for precession, and so that became a system of twelve signs, each of thirty degrees, with the sign and degree of the spring equinox matching (relatively) what is actually there based on precession. This is called the 'Sidereal Zodiac' and it is about 25 - 27 degrees behind the tropical zodiac, so that the first day of spring is between 5 to 7 degrees of Pisces, depending on exactly whom you consult.
However, there is a third zodiac. This zodiac has always been floating up in the heavens, but hasn't been used throughout most of recorded astrological history, and that is the True Constellational Sidereal Zodiac. It differs in that it reflects the true size of the constellations, which are not twelve and are not each in neat, orderly thirty-degree segments. There are thirteen signs and their individual degrees vary considerably. This is what is actually up in the heavens. In this system, the first day of spring occurs at about 10 degrees of Pisces.
The True Constellational Sidereal Zodiac (TCS) is controversial, but it is what is in the heavens every night. Just go look. No one is making it up, while the traditional Tropical and Sidereal Zodiacs are contrived, not what is in the heavens. However, that doesn't mean that they don't have use and value, while their utility conversely doesn't mean the TCS is not useful or accurate. They all can work, but they all show different aspects of the personality and psyche. I will look at each Zodiacal system and the signs in more details in their own posts in this series.
So what is the one thing that is the same in all three of these systems? Well, even though the "sign" background is slightly variable, they all still have the planets and other placements in the same quadrant of the sky, and they all have the planets and other placements in the same aspects to each other. To me, this is what is really important - the four segments of the sky (actually, the four segments of the earth around the sun - the four seasonal markers) and the geometric aspects between the planets. We will look at all of these points in more detail in the other posts in this series.
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